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The Pulse: Expanded transit network needed to reach city fringes

Getting around in the city’s north-end is a nightmare say Willowdale and Don Valley East commuters who believe expanded subway and bus service can make the TTC more efficient.

“It needs to be more widespread,” said supply chain worker Sorin Coste of the transit system, which he says fails to reach many neighbourhoods near city boundaries. “This is a growing city and our transit is not sufficient.”

Coste was just one of 30 people approached on Sunday morning as they boarded transit at local subway stations, ran errands at a plaza near Don Mills and Finch Avenue and visited Fairview Mall. In the lead-up to the Oct. 27 municipal election, Coste and others were questioned for the Star’s
The Pulse series
about what changes they would make to Toronto transit.

This week, the focus was on Wards 23, 24 and 33, which encompass the city’s central north-end—an area many noted to be neglected while improvements like the implementation of the Eglinton Crosstown line and Spadina subway extension take shape in other neighbourhoods.

Plenty of those the Star spoke with said it’s “unreasonable” that commuters pay “expensive” fares and then have to mill about at TTC stations, sometimes in frigid or rainy weather, while they await delayed streetcars, subways or buses.

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When those vehicles arrive some complain they are often crammed full of people, making trips through construction and traffic-prone areas a headache.

The commute can be even worse in neighbourhoods along the wards’ northern fringes were TTC service is more limited than in the downtown core.

To solve these issues, many the Star spoke with said they want to see the subway system expanded to northern areas like Vaughan or Newmarket or connected further to transportation systems like GO Transit, York Region Transit/Viva and Zum, Brampton’s bus service.

Some, like retiree Ami Lui, predict a broader and more integrated system will alleviate crowdedness, service constraints and commuter frustrations.

Lui, who was waiting to be picked up from Finch Station’s kiss-and-ride in Ward 23 on Sunday morning, said she regularly commutes to Richmond Hill, but is disappointed by all the lengthy modes of transit she must take.

“I take a Viva bus or if I go downtown, someone picks me up from the station,” she said. “Subway would be easier and a better way to cut down on traffic.”

Over in Ward 24, IT worker Ying Deng and retiree Wui Chiew said they would like to see all the GTA transit systems connected and useable with a single metropass like Metrolinx’s Presto cards allowing for commuters to seamlessly transfer between buses, trains, subways and streetcars.

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“Systems just shouldn’t be separate and it should be easier for people to connect,” Chiew said.

Saro and Garine Avakian, an IT worker and student, headed for the Don Mills subway station, agreed.

They said they find getting around the city particularly difficult with the 167 Pharmacy North bus route not running on Sundays.

“I know Pharmacy can be a dead route on the weekends, but we have to circle around and use other routes just to get places on time,” Garine said, after describing all the transfers her and her brother had to make to get to Fairview Mall that day. “That’s one of the big gripes we have, but tt is what it is and it’s all the transit we have until something changes.”

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